How Are Fossils Formed?

How is a fossil formed? It’s agreed that a fossil is formed by being rapidly buried. If the body is not rapidly buried then scavengers and organisms would feast on the corpse and bones and it would be destroyed. But, by being rapidly buried, the scavengers can’t get to the remains. To be rapidly buried, the animal, (for example, a dinosaur) would have to be caught in a situation that would result in an immediate coverage. Perhaps a flood or volcanic eruption would deliver this type of sudden burial. A flood would have rapidly buried a dinosaur and would compress the body creating the conditions needed for fossilization. How long does the process of fossilization take? The conditions of creating a fossil would depend on the circumstance in which the dinosaur was buried. For example, if a dinosaur was to be caught in a volcanic eruption, then the fossilization of the dinosaur could take place within days. In the case of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, USA, the multiple flooding and mudslides created sediment layers within five hours. If an animal had been caught in the flooding or mudslide it could fossilize very rapidly. These drastic conditions form fossils and sediment layers very rapidly. Volcanic activity has been recorded throughout Earth’s history. Many known cultures have written accounts in their history of a great flood occurring thousands of years ago.